"The Winds of Time" by Maria Danilova, summary Automatic translate

A fantasy novel by Maria Danilova, published in 2017, it seamlessly combines romance, time travel, and historical thriller elements. The author takes the characters to medieval France and Ancient Egypt. The book is a standalone story, written as a single volume and not part of a multi-volume series. The text is replete with numerous everyday details, depicting the clash of people from different eras.

Sirina works for an unusual agency. Her boss, Eddie, possesses a hereditary magical gift for opening portals to the past. The company specializes in artifact mining — recovering lost ancient objects for wealthy clients. Her latest mission takes her to eleventh-century France to steal an antique ruby necklace. Once there, she disguises herself as a maid and sneaks into the mansion of a local aristocrat. Waiting until late at night, Sirina enters the madam’s bedroom and discovers her dead. A killer — a hired assassin named Enzo — stands motionless beside the body, holding a bloody blade.

Instead of eliminating the unwanted witness, Enzo gives in to a sudden impulse. Serena, desperately trying to stave off certain death, asks for a kiss. This absurd and unexpected move completely baffles the assassin, who kisses her deeply. A great commotion ensues, and the palace servants discover a fresh corpse. Enzo quickly helps Serena escape across the dangerous sloping rooftops, then deftly disappears into the pitch darkness. The girl remains in the settlement without her precious necklace. Soon, she meets a talkative young groom, Antoine. He tells the heroine about a strange stranger with a small magical glowing device. It turns out that the necklace was purchased by a visitor from the future — a man named Robin. He works for a fiercely competitive firm from 2015 and uses an expensive smartphone right in the depths of the Middle Ages.

Serena attempts to outwit Robin, but the necklace mysteriously disappears from his pockets. Soon, the royal guard appears in town, aggressively investigating the aristocrat’s death. Enzo returns to the girl, saves Serena from an enraged merchant, and gives her the stolen necklace. The Assassin openly declares his feelings for the strange traveler. Serena realizes she’s fallen in love, but she urgently needs to return to 2013. Eddie’s portal opens just in time. Enzo grabs the girl’s hand and fearlessly steps into the glowing circle with her.

The boss is furious at the appearance of a medieval mercenary in a modern, high-tech office. Eddie loudly threatens to force Enzo out. Serena harshly blackmails the boss, promising to hide the recovered ruby artifact in an unknown location. The boss reluctantly agrees to keep the assassin for a couple of days. She takes Enzo to her home, showing him the benefits of a modern, highly developed civilization. Electric elevators, high-speed cars, and a standard home television cause a real culture shock for the medieval mercenary. Soon, Enzo contracts a severe fever due to a complete lack of natural immunity to modern urban viruses. Serena urgently calls the on-call doctor. Enzo has a hard time with the bitter medications prescribed, but gradually recovers.

Sirina’s colleague, Max, returns from a difficult mission in Ancient Egypt with a huge, disturbing scar on his torso. He lashes out at her, accusing her of frivolity and associating with a murderer. A precious necklace suddenly disappears from the locked safe in Eddie’s office. The heroes decide to cheat and travel back in time a few hours to intercept the brazen thief. Setting a clever ambush, they catch the robber red-handed. The thief turns out to be Max himself from the near future. He uses an unknown flash of light and safely escapes through time.

Return to Ancient Egypt

The real Max swears he completely fails to understand his future doppelganger’s hidden motives. He soon confesses frankly: in Egypt, he was cut in half by palace guards. A dying Max was saved and brought back to life by a young Egyptian named Zor. The boy possesses powerful necromantic and magical talents. Max feels a huge, unpayable debt to the young man. Having learned from historical chronicles that Zor’s entire family will be vilely poisoned, Max decides to save the necromancer. Sirina’s partner hacks the portal’s defenses and secretly travels back in time. He attempts to change the Egyptian’s fate, but predictably finds himself stuck there without a return ticket.

Sirina and Enzo travel to Ancient Egypt to rescue the fugitive. They quickly find Max near Zor. During a lavish wedding feast, Arab mercenaries brutally poison Zor’s entire family. The boy miraculously survives. The assassins begin a thorough search of the palace, searching for the young mage. Enzo safely hides his friends on a high balcony and then distracts the assassins. The heroes fight their way to the portal. Enzo engages in a bloody battle with his pursuers. When the dimensional passageway opens, Sirina forcibly drags Enzo inside. The travelers safely return to 2013.

Eddie demands the necklace from the future be retrieved immediately. Serena, Max, and Enzo travel several years into the future and infiltrate a wealthy auction house. They accidentally encounter Robin and his criminal gang. Enzo cleverly intercepts the necklace, but Robin throws a magical symbol — a glyph — at the assassin. Enzo vanishes into thin air. In a frantic panic, Serena and Max flee through an open portal back to their own time with the artifact, leaving the mercenary trapped in time.

The boss coldly declares that Enzo is lost forever. The glyphs create unpredictable space-time fluctuations — simply put, random rifts in the dense fabric of time. Desperate, Sirina and Max return to scorching Egypt to visit the magician Zor. They are horrified to discover a powerful young man on the throne of a rightful pharaoh. Zor rules with extreme cruelty, mercilessly executing foreign ambassadors and forcibly subjugating Max. The magician demands a lifetime of slavery for his magical resurrection. Sirina and Max spend long, hot months in the palace, quietly observing the dark necromancer’s growing, insane tyranny. During a massive popular uprising, a stray arrow pierces Zor’s chest. Max drags the dying pharaoh through an activated portal to a modern city hospital. The doctors on duty quickly put the Egyptian into a medically induced coma.

The final battle for the artifact

Sirina spends endless weeks in the city library, desperately searching historical records for any tiny mention of Enzo. Having lost all hope, she sadly returns to the office and finds Robin’s gang there. The criminals are holding Eddie hostage. The robbers are waiting for a wealthy client to arrive so they can sell him a necklace at a profit. Mr. Graner arrives to collect the order, and the situation escalates. Suddenly, Enzo appears alive and cold-bloodedly beats Robin. The bandits are sent back to their original time without a shred of regret.

The Assassin explains his mysterious disappearance in detail. The glyph had thrown him back to the eleventh century. He had waited for years for the portal to open, but Eddie stubbornly refused to return. Enzo found a man with magical potential and personally taught him how to open time corridors. The grateful student transported the Assassin to 2013. Eddie confesses: Enzo had independently found a path through time, completely changed his binding, and now rightfully belongs to the twenty-first century. Serena and Enzo return home, enjoying their newfound peace of mind and a powerful mutual love.